Baku, June 12 (AZERTAC). Police arrested 57 people as the first wave of G8 protests hit London yesterday. Officers carried out a major operation this morning to clear the central London HQ of the anti-G8 movement before their planned march even got underway.

Nearly 1,200 officers were mobilized across London and hundreds swooped on a squat in Soho, tearing down the doors and removing around 40 people occupying it. They also trailed a protest through the West End, making further arrests.

It was planned as the first day of a week of protests against next week's G8 meeting. Anti-capitalist demonstrators identified around one hundred targets across the West End, including banks, hedge funds and even nightclubs they said were symbols of wealth. Instead, it was the police who struck first.

They searched the Soho building and the squatters they found there, most of whom were subsequently allowed to go free. Police said they made the pre-emptive strike because they feared that the protesters had weapons and were planning to bring serious disorder to central London.

But anti-G8 demonstrators said they had squatted the former police Section House on Beak Street in Soho to protest against the number of empty properties in London and one told The Independent he saw a police officer punch a protester in the face as the building was cleared.

Riot police swooped at around 10am, forming cordons to seal off the building from the surrounding streets. They brought tools in to cut down the doors after protesters barricaded them. People working nearby, who were told not to leave their offices while the operation was carried out, hung out of their windows to get a better view.

Demonstrators hung banners out of the windows, one of which read: "No Pasaran". Some went on to the roof to watch police progress but were soon replaced there by officers. At around 3pm, the first demonstrators began to leave the building as officers moved in. Others, however, continued to resist. Television footage showed police officers in climbing gear trying to secure the roof, bundling a protester who sprang on to the rooftop on to his front.